AFRICA’S BEST READ December 13 to 19 2019 Vol 35 No 50 mailandguardian mg.co.za LOAD-SHEDDING There is a solution Common sense says we need to shift to a mix of renewable energy sources NOW PLUS: Cosatu’s bold R200bn rescue plan for Eskom Pages 4, 5 & 21 Products subject to availability. Cape Town | Johannesburg | Port Elizabeth | Pretoria | Durban 0860 665 533 2 Mail & Guardian December 13 to 19 2019 Mail & Guardian December 13 to 19 2019 3 IN BRIEF Floods, yet a dwindling dam While some areas in South Africa face a crip- Zozibini pling drought, parts of Centurion and Pretoria TWEET OF THE WEEK NUMBERS OF THE WEEK have been underwater. The extreme weather, The cost of the new diamond- Tunzi which saw days of rain resulted in displaced studded Miss Universe crown residents and about 150 people being rescued — dubbed "The Power of after being trapped in Mamelodi by fl oods on Unity” — that was placed on theR73m head of Miss South Monday. The air force was called in to rescue Africa, Zozibini Tunzi, after she was crowned numerous people in Centurion. Because this rain fl ows north, to the Limpopo River, it Miss Universe this week hasn’t done much for the Vaal Dam — which is down to less than 40% of its capacity. At The decline in water levels least the tunnel bringing water from Lesotho the Vaal Dam has experi- is back in action. Not that there’s much water in Lesotho. Don’t wash your driveway with a enced even though there hose. Don’t be stupid. has been near-constant rain for a week Fixing Prasa will take admin “With immediate eff ect” and “quick The percentage of turn-around times” is something that Bougainville islanders Bougainville the Passenger Rail who voted in a refer- Island Agency of South endum for the terri- Africa (Prasa) will tory to become have to get used to in independent from the coming months, after Transport Minister Papua New Guinea, Fikile Mbalula dissolved the interim board 98% of the state-owned enterprise and placed it paving the way for the under administration. The rail agency is group of islands to become facing allegations of administrative ineffi cien- the world’s newest nation cies and corruption which involves some of Cape Town CBD is lit its top executives. This led to suspensions If the load-shedding seems unfair, and you live The age of Sanna of numerous senior managers implicated in on the wet and dark highveld, then prepare Facebook’s ranking Marin, Finland's new allegations of improper, irregular, corrupt, to hate your colleagues working in the scenic in the "best place prime minister and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, in order Cape Town CBD, which has been exempted to work" survey to turn the company around. Prasa’s fi nan- from load-shedding, even more. According to the34 world’s youngest head of this23rd year. For three years it was rated cial problems became evident in the 2015-16 the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s state, who will be leading the as the best, but this is its lowest rank- fi nancial year. In the 2017-18 fi nancial year, Geoff Jacobs in an interview on Cape Talk, the country with a new, female- the entity changed boards four times, which City is trying to minimise the eff ects of load- ing since it first made the list in 2011 majority Cabinet furthered instability, said Mbalula. It is likely shedding and they “must be commended” as the top-rated workplace the next board will have to be trained to take for it. “We understand that the exemption is better care of its fi nances. because there are key installations in the city Graphic: JOHN McCANN Compiled by: ATHANDIWE SABA centre … big businesses, Parliament, the pro- A unifying Miss vincial parliament, the City of Cape Town itself, China. The people of China work the second will not bear any costs in respect of security Universe a couple of hospitals,” Jacobs said. Even when longest with 2 174 hours a year. Not that this upgrades done at the ministers’ private resi- Zozibini Tunzi, Miss the city faced stage 2 load-shedding, which has meant much in the way of productivity. dences. This comes after Finance Minister Tito South Africa 2019, now seems like a benign spanner in the works, Societies with shorter working hours tend to Mboweni’s depressing medium-term budget was crowned as the City of Cape Town brought it down to stage have higher levels of productivity. policy statement in October, in which he said Miss Universe 2019 1, because it had its own generation. Hopefully that government has to signifi cantly reduce on Monday morn- the rest of South Africa can look forward to a Ministers’ lavish expenditure in goods and services as well as ing. Even though light at the end of the tunnel as well. expenses capped transfers to stabilise its debt by 2022-23. people have been South African advocating for looks South Africa works longest, not hardest ministers will also ‘They’ won to be less and less important, we still have a If 2019 appears to have been a long year, have to slash their Merriam-Webster announced that the offi cial worldwide pageant culture. At least it is good you’re right, especially if you have a full-time expenses, as many word of the year for 2019 is “they”, used as a to know that not only has South Africa been job. According to Our World in Data, at the South Africans have singular. “They” is used as a gender-neutral excelling in it of late, but also the women of University of Oxford, South Africans work been doing for years. pronoun for individuals who identify as our country have been using it as a force for longer hours than anywhere else in the world. Although the ministers non-binary and was added to the Merriam- good. In response to a question before win- Although we have an unemployment rate of will still have lavish life- Webster.com dictionary in September. Its use ning the title, Tunzi said that she grew up 29%, those who have jobs, in what is deemed styles, the new ministerial handbook for mem- as a singular pronoun is not new, however, in a world where a woman who looks like to be the “most advanced economy” in Africa, bers of the executive, launched by the depart- and according to Merriam-Webster, it has her — with her shade of skin and her kind work 2 209 hours per year. That comes down to ment of services and administration, has set been used as a gender-neutral pronoun for of hair — was never considered to be beauti- almost eight and a half hours a day, fi ve days new guidelines for ministers’ fi nances, whose over 600 years. Searches for “they” increased ful. “I think it is time that that stops today. I a week for all of the 52 weeks a year. That is excesses were mostly taxpayer-funded. One by 313% and competed with the Latin phrase want children to look at me and see my face a mouthful, yes, but what else do you expect of the new limitations include the capping “quid pro quo” which is all over the Trump and I want them to see their faces refl ected in to hear when our hours are longer than the of vehicle costs to R700 000 (including value impeachment inquiry and American media at mine,” she added. country that practically invented hard work — added tax). Another limitation is that the state the moment. 4 Mail & Guardian December 13 to 19 2019 NewsNews Coal is destroying South Africa. energy minister Gwede Mantashe Why are we dithering when independent power released the much-delayed IRP — he producers hold the answer? Ideology, it seems said that 2 000 to 3 000 additional megawatts were urgently needed. EDITORIAL because of its air pollution. That cost The IRP has been delayed for to the healthcare system is unknown, nearly a decade. Meant to be updated skom is too big to fail. The because the health department every two years, its 2013 and 2015 fate of the power utility doesn’t collect data on it. This is updates were thrown in the dustbin and the fate of this coun- despite air pollution from all sources by former president Jacob Zuma. try are one and the same. killing 20 000 people a year in this This is because the plan said South EAnd right now plans to country, says the United Nations. Africa did not need nuclear energy rescue Eskom lie in doubling down Caring for these people is, in effect, a — a R1-trillion build that Zuma was on its coal-fired power plants, on a secret subsidy to Eskom. As are the hell-bent on getting done. Instead, fleet that can — on a day without asthma pumps and other medication those updates outlined how the load-shedding — only provide about that people living in Mpumalanga country should shift away from coal 70% of its own capacity. We are not have to buy to keep breathing. and nuclear to create a mixed grid, making this up. This is what the These numbers do not end up in dominated by wind and solar power government itself has said. speeches by ministers. They are not plants. But, as the Mail & Guardian has brought up when calculations are This year’s edition of the plan, reported throughout this year, coal done about what should power this which has been signed off by the no longer makes sense.